K6DUE call now part of ISS Amateur Radio Club

The K6DUE callsign of the late NBC Newsman Roy Neal is now the call of the International Space Station Amateur Radio Club.

According to ARISS International Chairman Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, the call letters will initially be used for ground station operations but may be used for other activities
in the future.

For those not aware, Roy Neal, K6DUE, spent more than five decades as a broadcaster specializing in science and aerospace reporting for the National Broadcasting Company.

He is generally credited with convincing then NASA chief Jess Moore to permit ham gear to be flown on board the
early space shuttle missions. The first of these was STS-9 that carried Spacelab One and Mission Specialist Owen Garriott, W5LFL, who made the first-ever ham radio contacts from a spacecraft on-orbit.

After Garriott's successful flight, Neal and several others formed the group known as SAREX - the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment. Later called the Space Amateur Radio Experiment, it was a program that promoted and supported the use of amateur radio by astronauts in low earth orbit aboard the United States Space Shuttle. This, to communicate with other amateur radio stations around the world especially those in classrooms as a scientific demonstration. It was superseded by the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station or ARISS program that we hear so much about today.

Roy Neal, K6DUE, passed away at age 82 on August 15, 2003, following open heart surgery. On November 11th 2003 the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station organization announced an on-the-air event to commemorate Roy Neal's lifetime of achievements in ham radio.

Now, with the acquisition of his K6DUE call letters by the International Space Station Amateur Radio Club, Roy Neal's contributions to manned ham radio operations from space will live on in perpetuity.

Source: ARNewsline™, KA3HDO